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Is Matthews International (MATW) a Great Value Stock Right Now?

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Here at Zacks, we focus on our proven ranking system, which places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, to find winning stocks. But we also understand that investors develop their own strategies, so we are constantly looking at the latest trends in value, growth, and momentum to find strong companies for our readers.

Of these, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

Luckily, Zacks has developed its own Style Scores system in an effort to find stocks with specific traits. Value investors will be interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with both "A" grades in the Value category and high Zacks Ranks are among the strongest value stocks on the market right now.

One company to watch right now is Matthews International (MATW - Free Report) . MATW is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 9.13, while its industry has an average P/E of 15.35. Over the past 52 weeks, MATW's Forward P/E has been as high as 11.27 and as low as 5.49, with a median of 7.88.

We should also highlight that MATW has a P/B ratio of 1.39. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks attractive against its industry's average P/B of 3.04. MATW's P/B has been as high as 1.75 and as low as 0.87, with a median of 1.19, over the past year.

Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's sales. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. MATW has a P/S ratio of 0.57. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.46.

Value investors will likely look at more than just these metrics, but the above data helps show that Matthews International is likely undervalued currently. And when considering the strength of its earnings outlook, MATW sticks out at as one of the market's strongest value stocks.


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